GB1034318A - Improvements in or relating to packing machines - Google Patents

Abstract

1,034,318. Packaging machines. A. SCHERMUND. July 14, 1964 [Sept. 23, 1963], No. 37303/63. Heading B8C. A machine for packaging batches of articles, e.g. cigarettes, in drawer-and-shell or hinged lid cartons and which has two packaging lines operating simultaneously, includes two horizontal article feed paths, one at a higher level than the other and two packaging material feed paths, each running transversely of and intersecting an article feed path, one article feed path crossing over a packaging material feed path. In the machines described, batches of cigarettes are initially wrapped in foil and then packed in the cartons. The cigarettes are fed down parallel guides from the base of hoppers in the way described in Specification 922,320 and fed from the base of the guides by conveyers. In one embodiment, cigarettes from a hopper 10 are fed, a layer at a time, by conveyers 83 to form double layers in front of conveyer dogs 89. The batches carry wrappers from reels 95, 95a through known side folders and the dogs 89 hinge back to permit folding of the wrappers on the trailing faces. The batches are then raised by elevators 107 on to upper and lower paths which intersect the carton feed means. Drawer blanks from magazines 63, 64 at stations I, II are pressed down into open-sided pockets in conveyers 11, 12 by vertically reciprocating plungers. The sides of the drawers are folded up as they enter the pockets and the flaps on the side of the machine opposite the cigarette feed are folded in by fixed folders (not shown). When the drawers reach the batch feed paths, overhead conveyer dogs force a batch into each drawer through its open end. The remaining flaps of the drawers are folded in by known means (not shown) and they are urged through guides 145 into the shells, fed from magazines 137, 138 at III, IV, erected by means, not described, and carried into alignment with the article feed paths by conveyers 13, 14. The filled cartons are ejected along a pathway 191 and turned on edge by a plough 192 for further wrapping (not described). In the arrangement as shown in Fig. 14, the conveyers 12, 14 pass beneath the right-hand article feed path and the feed from the drawer blank magazine 64 at I crosses the conveyer 14. In a similar embodiment (Figs. 1-11, not shown) the cigarette hopper is on the opposite side of the machine to the drawer and shell magazines and one feed path carries forward two parallel batches which are united after wrapping for insertion in the drawer. The other feed path transports a double width batch. The shell and drawer conveyers extend beyond the points of intersection with the article feed paths to enable fixed folders to complete folding of the drawers. In a further embodiment (Figs. 18-22, not shown) an open-side wrapper is applied to each batch on the two feed paths which is then pressed by a vertical plunger into a hinged-lid carton held in a conveyer pocket. The conveyers carry the cartons from magazines past lid opening ploughs to the filling position and from there past similar closing devices to vertical stackers.